It is a common practice within the commercial hair salon industry to place a relatively large protective cape around the neck and over the clothing of a person or customer having his or her hair washed and/or cut. The protective cape is primarily used to direct liquid and cut hair away from the person's clothing.
To prevent the neck of the protective cape from becoming soiled, it is also common to initially place a strip of very thin, disposable paper tissue around the neck of the customer prior to placement of the cape. The thin, disposable paper tissue is sandwiched or juxtaposed between the neck of the customer and the inner-side of the cape.
The thin, disposable paper tissue used in the prior art is inadequate to absorb any significant amount of liquid passing down the neck of the customer. Consequently, use of several paper tissues stacked upon one another is required, and this still does not eliminate the problem. It is readily apparent after even the first use of such paper tissues that the tissues are not intended to accomplish the tasks at hand, but are simply used to protect the cape's collar from becoming soiled against the person's neck, and possibly to prevent chaffing of the cape's collar against the person's neck.
Various devices have been developed in an attempt to overcome these difficulties. For example, the following issued patents describe two different protective collars which are intended to prevent liquid and cut hair from passing down the neck of a person or customer: Nicolet (U.S. Pat. No. 2,116,685, issued May 10, 1938); and Kinsella (U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,903, issued Mar. 4, 1980).
During the course of a novelty search, which was conducted for the present invention, the following patents were also discovered: Flink (U.S. Pat. No. 2,638,599, issued May 19, 1953); and Aronson (U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,794, issued Jul. 10, 1990).
The inventor believes that the listed patents taken alone or in combination neither anticipate nor render obvious the present invention. These citations do not constitute an admission that such disclosures are relevant or material to the present claims. Rather, these citations relate only to the general field of the disclosure and are cited as constituting the closest art of which the inventor is aware.